Events - Part 74

Christopher Street Day, Berlin 2022

Christopher Street Day or CSD is a European version of Gay Pride, held in several European cities.  The name commemorates Christopher Street in New York City, the site of the Stonewall riots in 1969, the first gay uprising against police brutality.  CSD Berlin draws hundreds of thousands of people.  The main event is a huge parade through the streets of Berlin.

In preparation for CSD in 2022, some guys are getting body-painted.

Another view of the same guy.

And here he is in one of the Berlin subway stations.

Another body-painted guy.

And a couple of them getting their picture taken.

But the main event is a huge parade through the streets of Berlin.  Don't think that most of the parade marchers are naked.  There are hundreds of thousands in the parade supporting LGBTQ rights, and almost all are clothed.

But a few naked guys were seen in the parade, like this guy ...

and this guy.

We end with this parade-goer and his sign.  Though the sign is in English, the photo is supposed to be from CSD Berlin.  In any case, I agree with him.

Olympic Photos by Paul Richer - Part 5

 Olympic Photos by Paul Richer, Part 5

We continue our series of nude photographs by Paul Richer of athletes in the 1900 Paris Olympics.  Richer was on an official Olympic commission to study the athletes.  Richer was responsible for taking nude anthropomorphic photos of the athletes, and since it was an official commission, almost all the athletes who were asked to participate did so.

We start with French-Algerian cyclist Leonce Ehrmann, above.

Here are Paul Richer's photos of Ehrmann, front view ...

rear view ...

and side view.  Disclosure: I have removed yellowing from Richer's photos and brightened them.

Johannes Gandil was a Danish runner and football (soccer) player.  He is seen above with the Danish Olympic football team in 1908.  He is the second from the left, with the mustache.

Here's Johannes Gandil in 1900, front view ...

rear view ...

and side view.

Émile Gontier was a French pole vaulter.  I got this photo of him from Vintage Muscle Men.  Thanks, Jerry!

Here's Émile Gontier, front view ...

rear view ...

and side view.

Our last Olympic athlete today is Canadian marathon runner Dick Grant, seen at left above.  I also got this photo from Vintage Muscle Men.  Thanks, Jerry!

Here's Dick Grant, front view ...

rear view ...

and side view.

Next time: more Paul Richer Olympic athlete photos.

Performers - Part 73

 Warren Cuccurullo

Warren Cuccurullo, born in 1956, is a musician who played with Frank Zappa in the 1970s and Missing Persons in the 1980s.  In 1989 he joined Duran Duran.  He played with that group until 2001.  Above, Cuccurullo playing with Duran Duran in 1993.

Toward the end of playing for Duran Duran, his hair disappeared.  So did his inhibitions, if he had any, in 2000 when he appeared in a nude photo spread in the Brazilian gay publication G Magazine ...

including photos with a full erection (above).

He figured it would only be a matter of time before the Brazilian photos were on the Internet.

"Once you're posed erect in a magazine, and people are downloading your pictures, you might as well go all the way," he said.   

So he started posing naked for many gay publications.  Cuccurullo says he's not gay (he has a long-time Vietnamese girlfriend), but he is aware of his gay appeal.

He made a video of himself being interviewed naked in the shower.  At the end of the interview, photographer Jimmy Wood asked "Can I touch it now?" (above).

We end with a video of Cuccurullo jerking off that he presumably made for his gay fans.  The original video lasts for several minutes; I edited it down to its beginning and its happy ending.

Just as a reminder, Cuccurullo does have other talents besides his body.  In 2022, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Duran Duran.

Photographers - Part 73

Rolf Koppel

Rolf Koppel was born in Germany in 1937.  In 1939 his Jewish family fled Nazi Germany, immigrating to the U.S. in 1941.  Koppel graduated from Hunter College in New York in the 1950s, where he was mentored by Robert Motherwell.

Koppel has produced a rich collection of mostly black-and-white photos.  His work contains a large number of nude self-portraits, like Self Portrait Reclining, 1987, above.

The 1989 self-portrait above is called Artist and Model.  He is holding a small mirror so we can see his face.  This photo was used on the cover of his 2000 book Soliloquy, a book of self-portraits.

Another self-portrait from the book Soliloquy doesn't quite show the goods.

But this self-portrait from Soliloquy definitely does.

Above, Angel, 1987, from the New Mexico Museum of Art.  I'm guessing this is not a self-portrait, since it would be strange to call a self-portrait Angel.

Winged Boy, 1990s, is definitely not a self-portrait.  Disclosure: I brightened the photo because the original was so dark almost nothing was visible.

He is One of Those Eternal Servants, 1993, another Koppel photo from that era.

Then Koppel discovered Will Light Johnson, an artist and fellow photography enthusiast.   Homework II, 1999, above, was signed "Rolf Koppel + Will."

Koppel's 2012 book Basement Arcade consists entirely of nude photos of Koppel and Will.  That's Will on the cover.

We end with the photo Will in Gladiolas, 2005.  Rolf Koppel and Will Johnson are now married and live in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Calendars - Part 73

Animal Men 2016

Last time we saw the 2015 Animal Men calendar, featuring nude men with various animals.  Today we look at the 2016 Animal Men calendar.  I know almost nothing about these calendars.  Despite the English title Animal Men, the month names are in German, so I think this is a German calendar.

The 2016 cover features a snake.

January features some kind of parrots.  The frontal view is hidden by darkening it ...

but a little Photoshop work takes care of that.

February features a Dalmation.

May shows another snake.

June has a butterfly.

For those of you who don't like August's spider ...

November features a kitty-cat.

And we wrap up with a man and his horse.

Protests - Part 73

 Spanish Protest

On Sept. 24, 2013, Spain's 75-year-old King Juan Carlos underwent successful hip replacement surgery at Quiron University hospital in Madrid.  Less than an hour before the surgery, as Queen Sofia arrived at the hospital, a naked man broke through a line of journalists outside the hospital, decrying "secret CIA crimes."

It's unclear whether Queen Sofia saw the naked protester, but images of him were broadcast on national television.  Carlos Diaz Fernandez was quickly detained by police and taken away.

Not all naked protests are in support of a good cause.  Sometimes it's just a crackpot.